Photo 1: IThe Fataga valley towards the Necropolis of Arteara. Photo from the Mirador astronomico de la Degollada de las Yeguas
Today Cri and I will transform, me Indiana Jones and her Lara Croft! Gran Canaria is not only nature, but also history since this area was already inhabited 2,500 years ago by a people of Berber origin from North Africa. It is still unclear how they got to the Canary Islands. It turned out that they were not navigators and could not even swim. It is assumed that they had boarded the ships of ancient peoples, such as the Romans or Carthaginians and perhaps had sailed from there to colonize the islands. One thing is certain, while maintaining a common identity, a different civilization has developed on each island, with different customs, laws and divinities, practically as if there had never been contact between the inhabitants of the various islands of the archipelago. Surely they were peaceful and quiet. They lived on sheep farming and agriculture and in Gran Canaria they lived in natural caves. Their civilization, when the Spaniards arrived in 1400, was practically Neolithic as they did not yet know metals. So it was easy to defeat them with swords, armor, mastiff dogs. The inhabitants took refuge in the furthest caves in the mountains, but they were defeated and as you can imagine, during the conquests the Geneva convention for prisoners of war did not yet exist 
and how it was used then and it doesnât seem to me to have changed much either now, they were almost all eliminated. However, from DNA investigations, an indelible sign of their descent from that original people remains in todayâs inhabitants of the Canaries, above all as female descent, a sign of how it happens in nature, for example in lions, the females were preserved from extermination and incorporated into the new Spanish community.
Photo 2: Photo from the astronomical point of view of the Degollada de las Yeguas. Impressive road to Fataga where meeting an oncoming bus is an adventureâĻwe met 7!
Continuing our exploration of the interior of Gran Canaria, we have come to a sacred place for the ancient inhabitants: the Necropolis of Arteara. It is an ancient cemetery that has been in use for more than 2000 years, from the 5th century BC. until the 18th century AD. It occupies a large area, given that we are in the period of the soccer world cup, about 20 playing fields, on a plain made up of lava rocks that have collapsed downstream and reused to build mounds. There are, from the data found on site, 809 tombs. We didnât start counting them, but walking along the path for visitors, traced in a part of the necropolis, piles of stones could be seen protruding from all directions, even if they were well camouflaged in all that reddish color of the plains.
Photo 3: Tombs in the Necropolis of Arteara
Photo 4: âLaraâ contemplates the Necropolis and the splendid walls that frame the Arteara valley
Photo 5: The hives for bees made with emptied palm trunks and a closing lava stone
Photo 6: The visitor center and closed museum of the Necropolis of Arteara
There is a visitor center with a small museum which lists opening times. But honestly it seemed closed to us, as also reported on Google Maps with the âClosed momentarilyâ. Interesting is the explanation of how in ancient times hives for bees were made using the excavated trunk of palm trees with a lava stone on top to close the hole, leaving room for the bees to exit.
Photo 7: The Kingâs tomb aligned with the equinoxes
The most important tomb is found almost immediately and is the so-called Tomb of the King. It is the most significant tomb and the scientists have noticed its perfect alignment with the equinoxes, we could not ascertain it being in December, but the sun set during this event astronomical illuminates the grave. This suggests that the ancient inhabitants had considerable knowledge of astronomical events and gave it a godlike aspect. Even the place has its own notable naturalistic aspect. In fact, the plain where the necropolis is located hosts a small oasis exploited by the inhabitants of the small village of Arteara.
Photo 8: The burials are 809 and perhaps even more on a lava plain that measures like 20 football fields
Photo 9: other graves. The bodies of the deceased were placed in a box called cista and then a small pyramid usually conical in shape was built on top of it.
Photo 10: The boundary wall that ran along the entire perimeter of the necropolis
Splendid vegetable gardens, each with its own basin with water reserve and a palm grove with tall, slender plants that stand out against the steep and very high walls of the mountains and the blue sky in the background. The walk that takes us back to the car is also a way to observe the current rural architecture, which in some way also recalls that of the ancient Canarian population, certainly not without imagination. No lost arks for Lara and Indiana to recover, but all we wanted were some photos to take home as a reminder of this beautiful experience with the ancient people of Gran Canaria.
Photo 11: Rural architecture of Gran Canaria with Lara Croft returned @mariacristinafossa
Photo 12: Vegetable gardens and palm grove in Arteara
Photo 13: Rural architecture of Gran Canaria
Photo 14: Rural architecture of Gran Canaria
Photo 15: The throne of the King?
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